Is Summer Over Yet?

The Colorado weather, for the most part, was great this summer.  The highs were mostly in the upper 80's, which is a little cooler than normal this time of year.  We took advantage of the nice weather with several fun outings.  We made a family trip to a nearby park that has water fountains.  Kara, of course, jumped right in, but Emily was a little more cautious.  She eventually warmed up to the fountains and had a good time.  The next weekend, we ventured to Broomfield Bay Aquatic Park, which is awesome for little kids.  They have a huge baby pool (deepest part is about 18 inches deep), which Emily had a great time just walking around.  They also had some decent water slides, which Mommy and Kara checked out.  They also had a small water slide in the baby pool.  After Emily's first time down, she couldn't get enough.  As soon as she got to the bottom, she'd climb right back out of the pool and up the ramp (see the video).

Kara's farm camp at Sunflower Farms ended at the beginning of August.  Her swim lessons also ended the first week.  Kara improved a lot during the summer.  She can now swim by herself (doing a form of elementary backstroke) and even jump off the diving board and swim to the side without any help!  Mommy has been spending the last couple of weeks trying to figure out how to occupy Kara's time.  Only two more weeks until Kara's preschool starts...

Emily's language skills are developing very quickly these days.  It feels like she comes up with a new word every day, such as: milk, wall, door, no (and she also wags her finger for emphasis), water, hug, bug, boo-boo (probably her favorite word), go, out, dog (which is usually followed by the sound of a dog panting), hop (which is usually preceded with a bunny or frog sighting).  She also has picked up an assortment of animal noises, which she enjoys sharing.  Emily also seems to really enjoy music (watch the video).  It has become tougher to catch these things on camera, though, since Emily has realized cameras can also play back videos.  Now, as soon as we take a picture, she'll grab for the camera (the dance video was actually 3 minutes long, but the last 2:51 of it was Emily grabbing for he camera).

Link to pictures